"Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father's Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success,"
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The New York Times reporters who uncovered Donald Trump's tax returns are out with a book Tuesday offering a gripping look at how Trump got rich.
Why it matters: Core to the former president's pitch for office is that he's a successful businessman. Relying on interviews with hundreds of former Trump associates, financial statements, confidential business records and public filings, the book dismantles that notion.
It's called "Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father's Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success," by Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig.
Zoom in: The authors identify three main sources of Trump's wealth, adding up to more than $1 billion. None appear to have anything to do with his acumen as a real estate tycoon or entrepreneur:
There's the roughly $400 million Trump inherited from his father, as they reported in 2018. A lot of that was plowed into money-losing businesses, including failed casinos and an airline.
He cashed in on "The Apprentice," from both being on the show and then licensing deals where he endorsed various products. His appeal to advertisers was enhanced based on a portrayal of him that was manufactured by the TV show's producers. (Read that reporting here.)
A New York real estate deal that he tried, and failed, to get out of ultimately wound up being profitable.
Between the lines: The book takes down decades of business reporting that portrayed Trump as a successful New York City builder who was a millionaire, even a billionaire — before he had come into that money.
That includes a 1970s NYT article claiming he was worth hundreds of millions when at the time he was simply working with his father's money and telling people it was his.
Mike Wallace — one of the most prominent journalists of the time — teed up a segment on Trump in 1985 like this: "[T]here's a new billionaire in town. Trump's the name. Donald Trump."
Only a few years before Forbes had estimated his net worth at over $600 million, the authors note. At the time, it wasn't true.
In that segment, Trump says he's going to build the tallest building in New York. That never happened.
For the record: Trump's campaign communications director, Steven Cheung, called the book "a desperate attempt to interfere" in the election.
Calling the book "lies" and "incoherent nonsense," he said it "either belongs in the discount bargain bin in the fiction section of the bookstore or should be repurposed as toilet paper."
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Watched a documentary online called "UNFIT".
It detailed Trump's life of crime and incompetence.
I even learned a few things I didn't know before.
Trump is a very sick man!
And Harris was brought up in a middle-class family.......................
A powerful rebuttal.
Snark and opinion duly noted.
Sometime in 2018 Mary Trump delivered a literal truckload (she had rented a truck) of documents to the New York Times related to the lawsuits she had filed to get her share of the family inheritance. The New York Times turned those thousands of documents into a series of articles detailing the Trump familys tax fraud. At the time the NYT articles were largely ignored by mainstream media, although the information should have completely disqualified Trump for a second term.
"If sarcasm is the ability to insult idiots without them realizing it, snark is the ability to insult others who will realize it and will a) appreciate the effort made and/or b) respond in kind in a perpetual snarkfest, making them a worthy opponent in a battle no one should have to fight."
No can do as it invariably ends in tickets with certain people.
I'm one of those 'certain people'; I'm not complaining like the squeaky wheel club.
Nope
So?
This book is the culmination of years of journalists detailed investigation into Trump's business frauds and failures, and his success, which mostly were gained by selling his name and image to other developers , a name that had become worth something because of his celebrity achieved through the TV show The Apprentice, which was a fake enterprise itself.
Trump inherited hundreds of millions of dollars from his parents, through chicanery and tax fraud. He failed his way through almost all of it until he was rescued by The Apprentice and the ability it gave him to sell his name.
The authors of the book have it all nailed down.
I never really thought of this - he will never repay all the money he borrowed. He will be shuffled off this mortal coil before that would ever happen. He is kind of a personification of the national debt - borrow money you will never pay back.
How ‘The Apprentice’ Fueled Donald Trump’s Rise to the Presidency - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
I would like to read this book
I just got it for kindle.
The book just came out today, hopefully it will get a lot of publicity.
I doubt many Trump supporters will read it. And they will likely deny the news reports. Confirmation bias is what keeps Trump's campaign alive.
I agree that most people dont care about this, maybe the New York Times didnt try hard enough to promote a lot of this information when it was first disclosed in 2018. Maybe people dont care if Trump is a lifelong fraud and crook, although that says something unsettling about the American people.
The Trump campaign is whining that it is a "hit piece" to bring this book out during the election campaign.
Its not unfair, but I'm sure quite intentional to release the book at this time. The publishers and authors want it to be successful and make them money. Trump himself wouldnt do it any differently.
Also watch the documentary UNFIT. It's an eye opener!
For a guy who has a net worth conservatively estimated at 2-7 billion, this book is most likely just another hack job puff piece but I’ll read it. Right after one of my liberal friends who wasted their money on it loan it to me.
And still donates most of his time to grifting those with a net worth of 2-5 cents.
Nah but the people he’s running against are doing just that while promising the opposite. Every gallon of gas, every cubic foot of natural gas, every dozen eggs, every mortgage payment, every kilowatt of electricity, every tax bill, etc, etc.
but yeah, Harris is for the little guy /S
Are you personally doing all that poorly?
Not sure how you got that from my comment. Are you denying that almost everything costs significant more since Biden took office?
I don't but then I don't blame Biden for the worldwide inflation every nation got hit with post Covid.
Neither do I. I blame him for doing nothing but adding to it. Worse yet part of how he did it was naming the Inflation Reduction Act, which did little to nothing to reduce inflation. Even Biden stopped calling it that. And if he didn’t have a Fed Chairman that was spot on, it would be much much worse.
Any first year Econ student understands such concepts.
What's hilarious is that you have to give him a $5 billion margin of error. I guess his "net worth" fluctuates based on who he's talking to about it. If it's Forbes or his gullible base he's worth $7B and he's a financial genius making a profit on anything his tiny Midas fingers touch, but if it's the IRS he's only worth $2B or less and hasn't made any profit in the last 30 years.
Nah…….. what’s really hilarious is you apparently think I made those estimates. Regardless, daddy gave him 400 million, he turned it into at least 2 billion. Only in liberal blizzaro world is that a bad thing.
If he had just stuck the $400M in the S&P 500 he'd be substantially wealthier now than he is and all it would have taken was sitting on his hands doing nothing. He is not a brilliant financial guru, he's a pretentious prick born with a platinum spoon in his mouth.
If you have evidence Trump cheated on his federal taxes, please give the IRS the info at
800-829-4933)
Trump owes money he will never repay.
The courts will end up seizing properties from his heirs in order to repay his debts.
I'd tell you to read the NYT articles about the Trump family tax fraud that made him rich(er) but I know you will never do it.
You can use the same number given above to report your complaints to the IRS.
" New York State Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron , having previously made a preliminary finding that Trump, his sons and some Trump Organization executives “had a propensity to engage in persistent fraud by submitting false and misleading Statements of Financial Condition ,” granted a partial summary judgment in favor of the state of New York. “Even with a preliminary injunction in place,” his lacerating opinion noted, “and with an independent monitor overseeing their compliance, defendants have continued to disseminate false and misleading information while conducting business .”
" In this week’s ruling, Engoron called James’ evidence “conclusive.” Between 2014 and 2021, he wrote, Trump and others overvalued his assets by $812 million to $ 2.2 billion ."
Ruling Confirms Trump Used Fraud to Hype Property Values — ProPublica
While Trump hid behind others letting them take the blame like Allen Weisselberg, the former Trump Organization chief financial officer who served 100 days in jail for dodging taxes and was sentenced to five months in jail for lying under oath during his testimony, anyone who thinks dirty Donald is actually innocent and never instructed his CFO and others to undervalue his properties when paying taxes is beyond a fool, they're nothing but boot licking sycophants with their heads stuffed up their Dear Leaders arse.
The evidence that Trump is a business fraud is extensive.
We have had 44 other presidents, I wonder if that description would apply to any of them. Not that I've heard of.
And yet, he’s still a billionaire.
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Trump live rent free in triggered heads.
A damn good deal.
"You can lead a horse to water but you cant make him drink"
wise old saying
My advise to you. Never own horses.